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AREA 6 MEMBERS: Join Lisa Kastner at Breakfast!

Lisa is our Pennwriters President and fellow Area 6 member. She coordinates the monthly Philadelphia Pennwriters critique group and supports writers throughout the region. Lisa is a great writer, a great leader, and a great person to know in Pennwriters.

Join Lisa at breakfast for a quick rally with other writers. Put faces to names, and make a new friend!

Jade Blackwater regrets to announce that after having fun day getting her hair done in Seattle to prepare for the Pennwriters Conference, she promptly came down with the flu and is unable to fly. Jade sends her deepest regrets, and encourages all writers to take full advantage of the Pennwriters Conference.

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We’re a week away from the 23rd Pennwriters Annual Writers’ Conference to be held in Lancaster, PA May 14-16 2010. This year’s conference features keynote speakers James Rollins and Elizabeth Kann, a stellar lineup of agents, editors, and authors for workshops and pitch sessions, plus designated party time at our ‘Heroes and Villains’ Saturday Night Masquerade Ball.

REGISTER NOW FOR THE 2010 PENNWRITERS CONFERENCE

So why should you attend? For starters, if you’re a member of Area 6 or another writer from the Mid-Atlantic, this is a fabulous opportunity to participate in a writers’ event right here in your region. Pennwriters offers a variety of workshops, networking, and promotional opportunities to help writers of all levels improve their work and build their business.

You don’t have to be from the East Coast to enjoy a Pennwriters event! Keynote James Rollins joins us from Northern California, and I’m flying in from Western Washington state to join the fun and support Area 6. The great thing about our membership is that we started with a strong community of writers from Pennsylvania, and have grown to include members from all across the US, and a few far-flung folks overseas. Our annual conference is the perfect time to put a face to a name/handle/avatar/penpal/writing-buddy.

LOOK FOR LISA KASTNER JADE BLACKWATER AT BREAKFAST

AREA 6 MEMBERS: Find me at breakfast – I’ll have something to catch the eye and make it easy to spot me – and please come introduce yourself! I want to meet members, shake hands, and introduce you to one another.

I’m on the hunt for a new volunteer for the Area 6 Representative position. We of Area 6 extend a hearty thank you to Bob Michalsky for his support of Pennwriters, and wish him all the best in his endeavors! If you are ready to support writers in your area and do more with Pennwriters, then I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Follow @Pennwriters on Twitter for even more resources including tweets about Pennwriters activities as well as news, tips, and insights from members, guests, and other writing resources.

If you’re on Twitter, remember to use the #PWcon hashtag to tweet the conference, and use the #Pennwriters hashtag any time to chat about Pennwriters. Send us a @ (mention) or DM (direct message) and let us know you’re a member (tell us your name so we can find you in our roster). @Pennwriters follows Pennwriters members and guests.

If you’re on Facebook, be sure to join our Group and Page to keep up on news and announcements and to engage with our membership.

Contact me with any questions (or to be my last-minute volunteer angel).

#5… Top-Notch Workshop Teachers

Registration for the 2010 Pennwriters Conference, May 14 – 16 in Lancaster, PA, opened January 11, 2010, and with apologies to a certain late night host, we’d like to present the top ten reasons to attend this year’s conference – in reverse order, of course.

We’ve invited a long list of well-published authors, well-known agents, and highly qualified editors to teach the 35-plus one-hour workshops that will be held during the conference.

Some of the names you’ll recognize as Published Penns:

– Martha Johnson (Marta Perry) has written for Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired for years and just signed a three-book contract with Berkley for her Pleasant Valley Amish series

– Jonathan Maberry is following up his success with Patient Zero with book two of his Joe Ledger series

– Maria V. Snyder is writing her second series of fantasy books for MIRA;

– Loree Lough continues to write romance for Summerside Press

– Cyn Balog joins us after writing her debut YA fantasy for Delacourte

– Timons Esaias is adjunct faculty at Seton Hill in the Writing Popular Fiction MFA program

Other authors are just as well-published, but because they are special guests, you won’t recognize them as Pennwriters:

– Donna Fletcher now writes romance for Avon and has 18 novels to her name

– CJ Lyons writes medical thrillers for Berkley

– Ramona DeFelice Long is a professional writing coach and writes short stories and nonfiction

– Pam Jenoff writes historical fiction for MIRA

We’ve also invited a handful of industry professionals: Barbara Lalicki, David Pomerico, and Leis Pederson are editors; Jenny Bent, Janet Reid, Jennifer Jackson, Miriam Kriss, and Alex Glass are literary agents; Nancy Daversa is an executive producer for a local television station in Philadelphia, and Anita Nolan edits Sprouts for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

#6… Intense Preconference Classes

Registration for the 2010 Pennwriters Conference, May 14 – 16 in Lancaster, PA, opened January 11, 2010, and with apologies to a certain late night host, we’d like to present the top ten reasons to attend this year’s conference – in reverse order, of course.

The #6 reason actually comprises four reasons: two full day and two half day preconference seminars on May 13, the day before the conference. Our goal with these classes is to provide writers who are a little farther along in their “journey” with an intense, personal experience that includes direct feedback on their work from the instructor. Registration for these classes opens January 11, class sizes are limited, and in three of the four classes, participants are chosen by the instructors. Application materials must be received by February 11. Follow the links below to learn more.
Two Full-Day SeminarsFiction Writing with Timons Esaias
Join Tim, an instructor in Seton Hill’s MFA program, for a full day of instruction on how to make your manuscript shine. Requirements: Must have a finished first draft of a novel; instructor will be critiquing your first three chapters prior to class. Limited to 15 writers.
Nonfiction Writing with Jonathan Maberry
Multi-published in fiction and nonfiction, Jonathan will help you fine-tune your outline and idea, and delve into the whys and hows of nonfiction publishing. Requirements: Just a killer idea for a nonfiction book. Limited to 15 writers.

Two Half-Day SeminarsCrafting Your Fiction Query Package with CJ Lyons
This class is designed to help you get your work in front of an agent or editor. CJ, an award-winning and best-selling author, will critique your query letter and focus in class on blurbs, high concepts, pitches, and long and short synopses. Requirements: Must have a finished first draft of a novel. Limited to 16 writers.

Plotting and Subplotting with Loree Lough
Want to know more about plotting before you get started on your work of fiction? Stuck in the middle of your current WIP? Join Loree as she walks you through all you need to know about plots and subplots and their job in your manuscript. Requirements: An idea for a fiction book. No class limit.

Note: Fees for these four workshops are not included in the weekend workshop price. Acceptance into classes with limits is based on the instructors’ choices. Full application instructions are included in the individual listings.

Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to Ayleen Stellhorn, freelance writer and editor, Pennwriters Member, and 2010 Pennwriters Conference Coordinator. Ayleen works hard, balances multiple projects, and still greets everyone with a smile (you can even “see” her smile in her friendly emails).

You can contact Ayleen via email with questions about this year’s Pennwriters Conference at this address: conference2010[at]pennwriters[dot]com.

[Additional details are available at the end of this interview.]

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JB: Greetings Ayleen! Thanks for joining us for an interview at the Pennwriters Area 6 HQ blog.

AS: Nice to be invited, Jade. Thank you.

JB: First, tell us a little about yourself. What do you write? When did you first join Pennwriters?

AS: I write newspaper and magazine articles mostly. My articles have appeared in the Hanover Evening Sun, the Chambersburg Public Opinion, and the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal. Right now I’m writing regularly for Lancaster Farming Journal and Adams Electric’s corporate magazine PennLines, and I just signed a contract to author a book featuring contemporary hooked rugs. I also do a lot of freelance editing for publishers of craft and hobby books. I’ve been a member of Pennwriters for about 10 years.

JB: I understand that this isn’t your first time volunteering as the Pennwriters Conference Coordinator. Could you tell us a little about your experiences, and what brings you back to organize the 2010 Conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania?

AS: I coordinated the 2008 conference in Lancaster. We had an amazing turnout, and overall, everything went really well. Award-winning literary writer and Princeton University professor Joyce Carol Oates was our keynote speaker; Susan Meier, Mary Jo Rulnick, Brian Butko, and Valerie Malmont were a few of our workshop presenters; and a record 236 people attended. We had a lot of firsts that year, including the preconference intensive classes, an author as a Friday keynote, and the networking lunch. I decided to volunteer one more year because I wanted to do a couple things differently: the first was a new hotel and the second was a commercial fiction writer as a keynote. So in 2010, we’re at the Eden Resort in Lancaster and we have adventure-thriller writer James Rollins as our Friday night keynote.

JB: This year I’ll be joining everyone in Lancaster for my first writers’ conference ever. Can you tell a newbie like me what to expect? What would be the *top three* things a writer could do to make the most of the Pennwriters Conference experience?

AS: Top three things for a newbie… Let’s see…

Be prepared to be overwhelmed is one. A lot goes on in a very short time, and your brain will reach overload quickly. I’ve been to five conferences, and I always walk out of each workshop with my head spinning with ideas. Even if you think you’ll remember something, write it down anyways. Odds are you’ll get another great idea — or piece of advice or link to follow — at the next workshop, and that first idea will be long gone.

Be ready to talk is two. If you’re generally the person who sits back and listens to conversations flowing around you, make a conscious decision to not be that type of person at the conference. Introduce yourself to the folks sitting at your breakfast table; find out what the person sitting next to you in a workshop likes to write; join a group of people hanging out in the hospitality room or at the bar; volunteer for one of the little jobs like moderator or Penn Pal. And along those same lines, be prepared to answer the question, “What do you write?/What are you writing?” in one or two sentences. You’ll get asked that more times than you can count.

Latch on to the positive is three. Getting published in any form takes a lot of skill, but it also takes a lot of persistence: you need to be in the right place at the right time with the right manuscript. You’ll hear lots of gloom-and-doom statistics at a writers conference dealing with how many queries an agent receives and how few they accept, or how many rejection letters an author received before he or she got published, or how many writers write but quit before their manuscript is even completed. Don’t get discouraged. Focus on the encouraging personal stories and listen to the advice of the agents and editors we’ve invited.

JB: Event planning is a huge undertaking – especially for something like this. Can you tell us about some of the joys and trials of volunteering as the Conference Coordinator? What advice would you give to other volunteers who organize events for nonprofits?

AS: The joys far outweigh the trials. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t be back for my second shot at this! I love seeing a writer make a connection with an editor or agent. I love to sit at dinner and hear people talk about how their characters are running their lives. I love providing an opportunity for writers to learn and grow and just be writers in whatever genre, whether that’s nonfiction, thrillers, comics, magazines, poetry, corporate communications…. The trials (and they are sometimes devils) are in the details. Putting together a quality three-day program that will appeal to a broad range of writers is a real challenge. Lining up everything the editors, agents, and presenters need — from travel arrangements to special room set-ups — can fall through the cracks with one missed e-mail. And making sure all the little things are covered, like codes to book rooms online and full coffee pots 24/7, is sometimes overwhelming. My advice to other volunteers who organize events like ours would be to believe in what you’re doing, and be a list-maker!

Keynote James Rollins, author of adventure thrillers, the movie novelization for the most recent Indiana Jones movie, and a new series of young adult thrillers. Watch his videos at www.jamesrollins.com to see why we think he’s going to be an excellent keynote.

Three days of workshops. The conference fee includes more than 40 to choose from, and all the instructors are published authors or industry professionals.

JB: We’ve held the Pennwriters Conference in Lancaster before. For visitors who’ve never been to Lancaster (or perhaps even Pennsylvania), what are some of the other local perks you might suggest they check out?

AS: Take an extra day to wander through Amish country. (The city is filled with tourist attractions, which give you a good overview of the culture, but there’s nothing like checking out the roadside stands and sharing the byways with buggies.) Go shopping at the outlets. Play golf at the Host. Eat at a smorgasbord. See a play at the Dutch apple. Check out Central Market. Visit Landis Valley Farm Museum.

JB: How can writers, editors, agents, publishers, book sellers, readers, etc. help to get the word out about the Pennwriters conference?

AS: I’d like to ask folks to simply drop our name and website into whatever social media they’re using. Mention us in your Facebook status, twitter about a favorite author who will be teaching, write about us in your blog, list the event info on your own website. I’ve also got fliers that you can hang up at local coffee shops, bookstores, libraries, etc. Every little bit will help. We’ve got an amazing program, and I want to share that with as many writers as possible.

JB: Where and how can writers register for the 2010 Pennwriters Conference?

AS: Online, go to www.pennwriters.com, click on Conference and then Register. If you prefer to send a check by mail, download and print a registration form at the Pennwriters website, or call or email me so I can send you one. Registration forms will also be printed in January-February 2010 issue of The Penn Writer newsletter. (Remember to book your room early. The Eden [1-866-801-6430] is a gorgeous facility but much smaller than the Host.)

JB: Finally, as a writer and journalist (and all-around awesome person), what words of wisdom or inspiration would like to share for writers and artists?

AS: Always end an interview with a question that strokes your source’s ego and makes her feel appreciated.🙂 Nicely done, Jade.

Ayleen, we thank you again for joining us and sharing some behind-the-scenes insight. See you at the Pennwriters Conference in May 2010!